another newbie... with a very sick 86DX

[repo-man]

so a howdy to everybody, very cool site. i have browsed it for info many times and it has always been super helpful. i have 4... yes 4 3rd gens. an 86 DX 5-spd sedan, an 88 LXi 5-speed coupe, an 89 LXi auto coupe, and an 89 DX auto sedan. they have always been good to me, except the latest one, the 86 DX, and im really hoping someone has some ideas because im totally out. ive searched long and hard but havent found anything else like this one.
when purchased by my girlfriend (also a gen3 addict) it ran quite well though was in rather rough cosmetic shape. shortly after she purchased it it began stalling out randomly. if you kept your foot on the gas you could keep it running but she was used to an LXi with PGM-FI so the whole 2bbl concept wasnt really appealing to her. after replacing plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor, and a refurbed 89DX junkyard carb it ran great again... for about 3 days. then the stalling came back, and got worse. now instead of the car stalling but firing right back up it now stalls out and takes anywhere from 30 sec to 3 min to refire. we thought it may have been a faulty or failing fuel pump since the engine seemed to be starving before it would die out but the pump was confirmed good as was the ignition coil. next up was timing checks. now this is not the first time i've had an A20 all apart but this one was wierd. when the accessories were all apart and the stretchy timing belt was off i quickly came to realize that there were no timing marks on the wheel. the numbers and the "T" on the flywheel were conspicuously absent and there was only a "24" with a line above and below it. after looking around elsewhere on the engine it looked pretty solid that this "24" mark was TDC so i put the belt on and put her back together. i started it and it fired right up but was running a little rough, just like it was before the belt replacement. i gave it a little gas and it picked right up. once it hit 3k rpm it smoothed out and ran great. it kept coming up to about 4k and running great, then lost power big time, slowed way down gave a little pop and died out. it hasnt started since. it cranks sparks and the fuel pumps but it wont start anymore and im at a loss for ideas.
so any help or ideas would be great. we've made it a pretty nice car and i had big plans for her but the whole not running thing is kinda putting a damper on that. id like to save it and hopefully avoid an engine swap, it only has like 165k on it. (my 89DX has 206k and still runs like new)
thanks for any ideas!

[ghettogeddy]

welcome to the site do u have any pics of your collection we would all love
to see them

[1ajs]

sure its not the carb....

[MessyHonda]

to the site....most of us like short questions...yeah i knoe im lazy....hope you get all the problems fixed up

[Pico]

Hello and
Sorry wish I could help you out

[Civic Accord Honda]

hi hi
do you have any pics?

[repo-man]

i certainly do have pics!

i have more and a pic of the 86DX but it wanst included in this one since it cant move right now. the 5spd coupe to the left is sitting on nice honda OE directional slant spoke wheels. that one was my baby til the blue one died, now my girlfriend is driving it. i plan to pick up a set of straight spoke SEi wheels for the 86DX once its better, but i have a 94 saturn with a comically large hole blown in the side of the twincam motor thats up for maintenance next. hehe

[Rockcord]

sweet lord! I wish i could find an 86-89 LXi.. looks like you definatly try to take care of these cherries!, sweet job

[repo-man]

i try to keep em going. theyve been good to me so i am good to them

thats funny though, ive always wanted a gen2 :-), the 5spd coupe even has the taller gen2 shift knob in dark brown to match the interior. but living here dead nuts in the rust belt it was hard to find these let alone a gen2 thats not rotted in half. i think the only saving grace is having the honda plant down the road in marysville oh, all of mine were marysville made. one time my girlfriend was driving that 5spd when the radiator blew out and AAA towed it to the huge honda dealership thats right by the plant. there was all kinda of crazy stuff down there, gen3s, old civics, pretty much one of everything from like 86-now. but no gen2s :-(

[repo-man]

oh and real quick, thats my 4th one, the 86DX 5spd that wont run right now

[MessyHonda]

wow your cars are imaculate......hope you can search all the forums to get it on the road again....or its time got a B-serries swap

[1ajs]

holy shit thoughs are imaculat

[repo-man]

the blue one is a 30ft looker, has some rust badly repaired by the previous owner, but still pretty nice. i may be getting a 5th one toward the end of the year, hah

[1ajs]

the blue one is a 30ft looker, has some rust badly repaired by the previous owner, but still pretty nice. i may be getting a 5th one toward the end of the year, hah

holy shit man nice colection. if it turns out the motor on the dx is fucked pick up a rust bucket doner car that you could raid a motor out of for it and posible other parts for the other 3geez :P

[HondaBoy]

personally, i'd recommend looking through all the carb's vacuum lines. that was completely the cause of most of the running problems i've ever had with my engine. i went ahead and took all the vacuum lines off my carb and runs much easier than it did before. i found a lot of the dash pots and anything else run on vacuum were deteriorated and just causing vacuum leaks causing rough idel and poor fuel mileage. i did have to tune the carb before i ran perfect, but thats probably a given.

[BITESIZE]

Welcome my fellow 3geezer! WELCOME!

[repo-man]

are there any aftermarket carbs or ones that will swap with the factory 86 carb that are less complex? i havent really seen any and i really hate the spaghetti of vacuum hoses in that engine compartment, although the 89DX actually has more. i will try removing the hoses and blocking them off and we will see. its no help that the last guy that had the poor thing had at best a loose grasp of how it worked so im still finding disconnected hoses, screws wedged in things and the like. i had to put a whole new dash in it because the glovebox was kicked out!

[MessyHonda]

are there any aftermarket carbs or ones that will swap with the factory 86 carb that are less complex? i havent really seen any and i really hate the spaghetti of vacuum hoses in that engine compartment, although the 89DX actually has more. i will try removing the hoses and blocking them off and we will see. its no help that the last guy that had the poor thing had at best a loose grasp of how it worked so im still finding disconnected hoses, screws wedged in things and the like. i had to put a whole new dash in it because the glovebox was kicked out!

yup webber....dude you got to check out the carb section....so much info i will make your eyes blead.

[88Accord-DX]

Welcome to the forum. Back to your first post, talking about the TDC which your saying is a "24" mark. You can have someone hold a long screwdriver down in the #1 piston spark plug hole while you turn the crank bolt. When the screwdriver reaches it highest point, that should be TDC on #1 piston. Then look through the inspection window on the bellhousing. See if your still at this "24" mark. It should be at the "T" stamped on the flywheel/flexplate.
On the last post, there are some webber carbs with adapter plate you can buy. That info is here somewhere.

Edit- Make sure your on the compression stroke BTW.

[SQ is the SQUAD]

yeah, this forum is def going to be your new home

[POS carb]

Welcome

The timing should be set at T when the cam gear marks are lined up with the cylinder head. If you look at the back of the gear ("inside" the head) you should see a little line at 3 and 9 o'clock, these should line up with the top of the cylinder head when the pointer is at T. The 24 is probably the advance mark.

As for the car turning off, probably the damn carburetor or a serious vacuum leak. I got pretty good at swapping out the carb for a junker model.
Weber 32/36 progressive carb with an adapter plate is a pretty common mod, I had it and it worked pretty good, I would consider the 38/38 though if you are going to fork over the dough for a new weber, it is basically the same footprint as a 32/36